Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Not Following Your Instincts
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Not Following Your Instincts
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Not Following Your Instincts Deuteronomy 12: 1- 32 Tomorrow morning I shall go to seminary chapel. Except that it isn’t a chapel. It’s an auditorium. On other occasions, I have lectured there, sung the blues in a concert there, listened to jazz concerts there, and taken part i…
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Sacred Inefficiency
Numbers and Deuteronomy for Everyone - On Sacred Inefficiency
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Sacred Inefficiency Deuteronomy 24: 1-22 Just once in my life I had to give someone the sack because we needed to economize in the seminary and we saw a post we could terminate without too much loss to the enterprise’s efficiency. The person had worked for the seminary for man…
Exodus and Leviticus - On Rendering to Caesar
Exodus and Leviticus - On Rendering to Caesar
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Rendering to Caesar EXODUS 4: 18-23 I have just been talking to a student who is a missionary in Indonesia, and we were discussing the dilemma of the church there. He described the church as postcolonial, but I suggested it is still colonial. The gospel came to Indonesia throu…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - On Not Being Able to Have a Baby
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - On Not Being Able to Have a Baby
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Not Being Able to Have a Baby Genesis 16: 1-4a People who cannot have children may go to huge lengths to fulfill their longing. Yesterday I noticed in the newspaper an advertisement for a free lunch and seminar on how to start a family by surrogacy. It involved going to India,…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Raising the Ceiling of Our Hope
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Raising the Ceiling of Our Hope
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Teach Me Psalm 119: 49-72 I’m grading student papers, and one effect that has on me (alongside making me want to commit suicide) is to make me puzzle over what it is that enables people to learn. There are people who have read the Scriptures with fresh eyes, seen things they had …
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Apocalyptic Expectations
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Apocalyptic Expectations
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Apocalyptic Expectations: The Afterlife, Labor Pain and New Birth (1 Thessalonians 4: 13- 5: 28) The recent death of believers in the community prompts Paul to expound on the afterlife. Again he employs the issue of suffering as a marker to distinguish between the Thessalonian co…
The Women's Bible Commentary - Community in Formation
The Women's Bible Commentary - Community in Formation
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Community in Formation And Jesus sets off again. Mark 4:35–8:26 presents more healing stories, all around the Sea of Galilee, but also stories of miraculous feedings and miraculous deeds on the sea. There are clear echoes between stories and clear echoes of Scripture. Although ne…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Comment: 2 John
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Comment: 2 John
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Comment: 2 John The author of 2 John, who identifies himself as the “elder” (v. 1), uses feminine imagery to speak of the church. The community to which he writes is addressed as “elect lady” (vv. 1, 5), and the community from which the elder writes is identified as “your elect s…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Creating and Ordering the World
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Creating and Ordering the World
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Creating and Ordering the World (Genesis 1-11) Creation is not merely the initial coming into being of the universe and its life forms; it includes also the ordering and continuous unfolding of the world. All of Genesis 1–11 is about the creation of the cosmos, including the more…
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Saul
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Saul
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
David and Saul Much of 1 Samuel is dedicated to the fact that Israel’s first king did not establish the dynasty that offers stability to united Israel and later the southern kingdom of Judah; rather, David did. Because of the switch from Saul’s family to David’s, it is possible t…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Disarming the Power of Persecution
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Disarming the Power of Persecution
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Disarming the Power of Persecution: Imitators of the Churches in Judea (1 Thessalonians 2: 13- 3: 13) The Thessalonians are not simply imitators of Paul; they are also imitators of the churches of God in Christ that are in Judea. The Thessalonians’ suffering at the hands of their…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Creation and Destruction of the Heaven and the Earth
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Creation and Destruction of the Heaven and the Earth
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Creation and Destruction of the Heaven and the Earth (2 Peter 3: 1-13) In order to counter the arguments of the “scoffers” who deny the promise of the Lord’s coming, the author of 2 Peter asserts that “the present heavens and earth have been reserved for fire” (3:7), and “the ele…
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Jonathan
The Women's Bible Commentary - David and Jonathan
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
David and Jonathan Jonathan, Saul’s son and king-in-waiting (or so it would seem), is a pivotal character in David’s replacement of Jonathan’s father as king. Immediately after the Goliath incident, we are told that Jonathan felt he was a soul mate of David’s and loved him as muc…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Elisha and the House of Ahab
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Elisha and the House of Ahab
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Elisha and the House of Ahab (2 Kings 1-8) Second Kings begins at the death of Ahab and the accession of his son Ahaziah. The break between 1 and 2 Kings is purely a pragmatic move, to divide the longer narrative into more manageable chunks, so readers should regard the narrative…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Distribution of Powers
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Distribution of Powers
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Distribution of Powers (Deuteronomy 16: 18-18:22) Deuteronomy 16:18–18:22 deals with four national offices that together comprised Israel’s leadership: the judiciary (16:18–20; 17:8–13); kingship (17:14–20); priesthood (18:1–8); and prophecy (18:10–22). The chapters raise three i…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Excursus 4: Echoes of Mercy
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Excursus 4: Echoes of Mercy
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
Excursus 4: Echoes of Mercy Through a lens of slavery and segregation, African Americans read Acts 10:34–36 and 17:26 as biblical critiques of oppression. Acts 10 became a rallying cry against slavery from the early part of the nineteenth century…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - End of the Age
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - End of the Age
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
End of the Age (Matthew 24: 1-51) Maternal imagery continues into the fifth discourse. Signs of destruction are “birth pangs” (24:8); the metaphor graphically indicates the inevitability as well as the increasing intensity associated with the end time…
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - Family Wisdom